New data were released Wednesday showing how the value of goods and services produced in the state grew last year, and it showed Connecticut badly lagging New York, Massachusetts and the nation as a whole in economic growth.

The economies of Alaska and Mississippi shrank in 2014, according to the new data, from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and Virginia had no growth.

Wednesday's report, which also updates past estimates of GDP by state, shows Connecticut growth has been lagging for the last four years. In 2011, the state's economy shrank by 0.9 percent, and the country grew by 1.4 percent. In 2012, the state grew by 0.3 percent, and the country grew more than three times faster. In 2013, the state grew by 1 percent, and the country grew almost twice as fast.

The strongest sectors in the state, the Bureau of Economic Analysis says, are companies that provide expertise to other firms, such as engineering, accounting and information technology; and management consulting and expert consulting, such as on health care benefits. Those two sectors were responsible for nearly all the growth in the state, and both grew faster than in the country as a whole.

The other piece of good news: Connecticut has the fourth-highest GDP per person, behind Alaska, North Dakota and New York. The first two are a reflection of their oil economies, but in the case of New York and Connecticut, it's a reflection of the workforce's skills to provide high-value services.

Based on events of the last 12 days, it would appear that Connecticut's engine is idled, our hull is taking in water and our bow is pointing toward the ocean bottom.

"The orchestra is playing on the deck," said Sen. Kevin Witkos, R-Canton, deputy GOP leader in the Senate.

Wednesday brought a dour...

(Dan Haar)

Christopher Steele is president of CWS Consulting Group in Boston, which helps companies pick sites for new locations. Steele said he wasn't surprised by the sectors that showed growth. He said they historically have been strengths in Connecticut.

"You've got a tremendous number of smart, smart people in the state," he said, and those consultants like living in Connecticut. He said they also like that it's easy to travel to their clients in Massachusetts and New York.

Real estate was slightly negative. The value added by finance and insurance barely grew in Connecticut in 2014, by 0.1 percent. The finance and insurance sectors grew 12 times faster in the country as a whole.

Manufacturing was a major drag on the state's economy. Both durable goods, such as aerospace engines, helicopters and submarines, and nondurable goods, such as screws, plastics and cardboard boxes, are in decline.

Durable goods manufacturing subtracted a third of a percentage point from GDP, while the sector contributed 0.17 percent to national GDP.

Steele said he does see manufacturing activity picking up nationwide — his firm just signed an agreement Wednesday to find a factory site on the West Coast. But, he said, "I haven't had a client that has wanted to look in the [Connecticut] area in quite some time."

At the end of 2014, there were 2,100 fewer manufacturing jobs in the state than there had been at the beginning of the year, with the majority of the losses in the higher-paying durable goods sector. Some of that is because United Technologies Corp. chooses to use hundreds of contracted engineers, both in Connecticut and India, rather than adding to its own staff — so spending shows up in professional services rather than manufacturing. But it's largely a loss of blue-collar jobs.

Seven years ago, before the recession rocked the industry, there were 27,000 more manufacturing jobs in Connecticut than there are now. Go back another seven years, and there were 69,500 more factory jobs.

On Wednesday, the Malloy administration announced it would give factories $3.5 million in each of the next two years to pay for training the workers they already have.